City of the Kings Lyrics

Vultures are circling over the Plaza de Armas

Making pitstops on the walls of the church

Below a kid's trying to sell matches and candy

But the competition is fierce

Soldiers are hauling away the roadblocks

Moving the warnings and the rusty chains

Giving way to the old cars and the buses

And the smog for which downtown is famed

Cesar opens his eyes

And rises from the bench

In the City of the Kings

He washes his face in the pond

And heads out of the park

In the City of the Kings

There's been an earthquake for the third time this year

A 6.8 on the Richter scale

It made the cardboard houses outside city

Collapse and fall to the foot of the hills

They've asked the United Nations for help

But no one wants to support this regime

They know the aid is used for armour

And extravaganzas for the brigade

Cesar is walking with

His brother on the streets

In the City of the Kings

They're looking for a way

To make it through the day

In the City of the Kings

The Spanish houses still stand

But they're scarred by the years that are gone

Cesar lifts his brother up

To let him look through the windows

A bomb explodes near a government building

And a stone statue loses its head

It's the work of the marxist guerrilla

Who according to the army is dead

Then the tanks roll back into the city

Like they've done so often before

They play their little tricks of terror

In the vain hope that this time it will work

Cesar is sleeping with

His brother on a bench

In the City of the Kings

He dreams that the bench is a boat

And it's sailing them away

From the City of the Kings